If there’s one thing I enjoy more than anything else, it’s a day fishing for turbot. Particularly aboard one of the charter boats that work out of Brighton Marina on the UK south coast. With luck, you can take home your catch and cook it!
We fish for big cod and pollack in winter, but for a couple of months in summer, its turbot.
Turbot is a highly prized species with great flavour and firm white flesh. It is regarded as the best of the flat fish.
It has an almost round-shaped body, studded with bony tubercles on its dark side. Colour varies from light to dark brown, spotted with green or black and a white blind side.
Similar to Halibut, it has a slightly more pronounced ‘fishy’ taste, so requires very little to enhance the flavour.
It’s also a chef’s dream, retaining plenty of moisture during cooking, preventing it from drying out. It is ideal for cooking whole and sharing.
It is not unusual to catch 3 or 4 good size fish and a number of juveniles during an 8-hour session, but we only keep a couple for the table, the rest go back under catch and release.
Turbot spoils quickly if not bled soon after catching and then kept cool for the rest of the day and the journey back to London.
Although I can clean the fish myself, usually one of the boat crew is good enough to do it for me, so the fish is ready for cooking when I get home.
After an early start, 2 hours driving each way, and a days fishing, the best bit is yet to come. Cooking and sharing a nice turbot with the family. It will keep happily in the fridge overnight but in my opinion, the fresher the better. Catch and cook it!
My favourite recipe for baked turbot is one of Jamie Olivers, it must be good judging from the way everyone dives in!
To try to catch a turbot for yourself, I recommend either Seabreeze3 or Grey Viking fishing charters, based in Brighton.
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Please observe minimum size limits when fishing.
Use a measure like this one from Tronixpro.
